Author: NLM Correspondent

BY PHOEBE NADUPOI 2016 KCPE and KCSE results will be highly anticipated. In the past, the credibility of the final examinations at both the primary and secondary school levels has not been guaranteed, and it has been an open secret that good grades were not a preserve of intellectually endowed students. Parents, teachers and students bought examination papers, and God knows what else might have gone on at Mtihani House. It is a shame how low we had sunk. Educationists had time and again queried how possible it was for, say, an entire class can get straight “A”s in total…

It is generally assumed that people can learn to be more rational. That’s the purpose of The Sequences (a series of multiple posts on the Less Wrong website on the same topic, to coherently and fully explore a particular thesis), after all. And veteran Less Wrongers (a community blog and forum focused on discussion of cognitive biases, philosophy, psychology, economics, rationality, and artificial intelligence, among other topics) do seem vastly more rational than the average person. But maybe it’s a selection effect: maybe Less Wrong doesn’t make people more rational, it’s just that the people who are already relatively rational…

By Tom Odhiambo Kenyans invest billions in education, yet many are sceptical of the value of schooling. It is common to hear Kenyans – who have taken loans to pay for their children’s school tuition – say that today’s schools, teachers and curricula are useless. Indeed, Kenyans talk about the value of education in Kenya today just as pervasively as they debate politics. Why this obsession with education? And is this concern peculiar to Kenya? No; it isn’t just Kenyans who worry every day that the school system isn’t worth the money spent on it. Across the border, Ugandans were…

A wash of greenery is spreading over the globe, from central Africa to Europe and South East Asia. One measurement found that between 1982 and 2009 about 18m square kilometres of new vegetation had sprouted on Earth’s surface, an area roughly twice the size of the United States. The growth in greenery is a consequence of climate change. As the planet heats up, places that were once too chilly for most plants to grow have become steadily more hospitable. That extra vegetation, in turn, exerts its own effects on the climate. According to a team led by Trevor Keenan of…

By Robert Okemwa Onsare I have been in and out of the university in the past 16 years as a student. These moments have been punctuated by working in telecommunication companies and the media as a technician and writer. Every time I am back in class, I usually reflect on the university’s curriculum and industrial requirements. Universities and the industry have distinctive roles; however there is a vast ground of convergence. In both, there is a quest to generate new knowledge, to innovate, to improve and use challenges as stepping-stones to confront the future. However, an insightful look on how…

By Alexander Opicho I enjoyed reading Tee Ngugi’s article published in the Saturday Nation of 11th November 2016. The author fiercely condemned African scholars in the generation of Wole Soyinka for having misled the continent of Africa through their irrelevant works of literature. Ngugi was reacting to Wolexit, a public declaration by Wole Soyinka that he would destroy his green card and exit or move out of America if Donald Trump won the presidential election. The writer looked at this as a shitty, thoughtless act that does not help Africa by way of intellectual leadership. Ngugi was partially right: Wolexit…

While the agricultural sector offers the greatest potential in improving livelihoods and reducing poverty for most East Africans, policy and technological challenges still exist in the sector. About 80 per cent of the population of East African Community (EAC) countries, living in rural communities dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. According to the African Development Bank, over 75 per cent of the total agricultural outputs in East Africa are produced by smallholder farmers with farm sizes of about 2.5 hectares on average, producing mainly for home-consumption, and using traditional technologies. With the sector dominated by smallholder farmers, member states should…

By Alfred Mosoti Abuga Kenya is East and Central Africa’s economic powerhouse. Her strong shilling over her neighbours’ currencies, and robust economic sectors bear testimony. The country was recently ranked the third most reformed (economically) state globally according to a World Bank report. Speaking at an investment forum in October in Bungoma, Hon Adan Mohamed, who is CS for Trade and Industrialisation, said some parameters considered during the survey include payment of taxes by business people, the ease with which exporters and importers are able to clear cargo across the nation’s entry and exit termini; the speed of registering a…

By Ian-Johnson Ondari The insurance industry has a reputation for utilising every weapon in its vast arsenal to avoid or minimise payment of claims. This is further intensified by the woven intricacies of the policy terms and conditions. Information asymmetries, where the insurer can access better and more information than the consumer, added to the tied-in insurance purchases, especially in the general insurance sector (consider purchase of loan-financed automobiles) are a consequence of this imbalance. The industry is continuously bogged down by claims related to non-payment of claims due to imperfect information and discrepancies over the sum insured. It’s vital…

As the technology industry came to grips with the reality of a presidential election that did not go its way, many in Silicon Valley landed on the idea that widespread misinformation spread online was a primary factor in the race’s outcome. Last month, both Google and Facebook altered their advertising policies to explicitly prohibit sites that traffic in fake news from making money off lies. That’s very likely a worthwhile fix, even if it comes too late. The Internet has loosened our collective grasp on the truth, and efforts to fight that dismaying trend are obviously worth pursuing. Yet it…